State Misses Opportunity To Buy Land

Tract Sold To Convicted Polluter

June 27, 1998|By DANIEL P. JONES; Courant Environment Writer

A businessman convicted of a felony in a federal water -pollution case has bought a large tract of ecologically valuable forest in East Haddam that the state Department of Environmental Protection was trying to acquire and preserve as open space, causing dismay among conservationists.

The DEP just weeks ago offered about $1.5 million and was in the late stages of negotiating a purchase of the 433-acre tract. It was to be added to Devil's Hopyard State Park as a key link in a protected open -space corridor along a Connecticut River tributary.

``I'm really angry about it,'' said DEP Assistant Commissioner David Leff, who headed Gov. John G. Rowland's open space task force and who was personally negotiating with the owner. ``It was my No. 1 priority; it was a very important piece of property.''

But the landowner, saying the state was taking too long to do the deal, sold instead for $1.6 million to a company formed by Ralph Crispino Jr. of Southington, who is awaiting sentencing on the conviction.

In January, a federal jury found Crispino guilty on two counts of violating the Clean Water Act. As president of a North Haven concrete-making company, Superior Block and Supply, he was convicted on charges of dumping harmful pollutants into the Quinnipiac River and being criminally negligent in a spill of more than 5,000 gallons of oil into the river in 1995.

Superior Block and Supply also was found guilty as a corporation.

Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny to sentence Crispino to at least 21 months in prison and have asked for a $1 million fine from Superior Block. A court date is set for Aug. 4.

Eli Danikow Jr., who sold the land, said he would have preferred to sell to the state.

``They would have preserved the land, and I would have received all the money at the same time. But the time factor was the major consideration. I'm in the process of buying a building in Florida, and I'm buying it in two weeks, not two years,'' he said.

Danikow said he received $1 million up front, and a mortgage deed was filed with the town showing how the other $600,000 is to be paid. Crispino signed the mortgage deed June 5, just days before he was scheduled to face sentencing in federal court in Hartford. A sentencing hearing began June 11 and will continue Aug. 4.

R. Bartley Halloran,who represents Crispino in the criminal case, said the timing of the purchase had nothing to do with the sentencing. ``It's coincidental, and neither here nor there.''

Halloran said Crispino had been planning to acquire the property for a long time. He said Crispino's plan is for ``a beautiful place for music and art; this is not something that he just came up with.''

In 1996, a development proposal for the land was outlined informally to the East Haddam Planning and Zoning Commission, calling for the building of a music and arts resort that would have included a concert hall, restaurants, theaters, cafes and a village for visiting artists. James Ventres, the local zoning officer, said Crispino was behind the proposal, called Eight Mile Gardens.

At the time, questions arose in town about the narrow roads in the area, parking demands, and sewage and water needs.

``The last time I met with Mr. Crispino I told him that before there was a legislative [zoning] change, I need to see a scope of work,'' Ventres said.

``They never developed site plans and brought them forward to us,'' he said.

East Haddam leaders and residents are wary of any plans for the land, which currently is zoned for residential lots of at least 2 acres.

Susan Merrow, first selectwoman in East Haddam and former president of the Sierra Club, a nationwide environmental organization, said she was stunned to learn of the purchase by Crispino.

``It certainly doesn't give us comfort,'' Merrow said. ``If a person who plays that fast and loose with environmental laws owns that major a resource in our town, it certainly gives us concern.''

The land, Merrow said, ``not only would have been a stunning addition to Devil's Hopyard, but if you look at a map, it was a major connecting link in a beautiful greenway that goes from Colchester, through our town right down the Eight Mile River into Lyme.''

The Eight Mile flows into the Connecticut River at Hamburg Cove in Lyme.

The DEP first sought to buy part of Danikow's property in 1988. In 1993, the DEP tried to buy a larger piece of the land, and funding was approved. But the deal collapsed. At one point, the state was considering whether to hold Danikow to the sale, but ultimately the state withdrew its offer.

The DEP remained interested in the land, and Danikow renewed his contact with the DEP early last year.

Danikow said he first started dealing directly with Leff this past January. Before that, he said, Vito Santarsiero, a former political appointee at the DEP, was his contact at the agency.